APPLIED RESEARCH CENTER Advancing Racial Justice Through Research, Advocacy and Journalism

news & notes Summer 2008 APPLIED RESEARCH CENTER ADVANCING RACIAL JUSTICE THROUGH RESEARCH, ADVOCACY AND JOURNALISM Our Moment is Here: A Letter from the President and executive Director, rinku sen LATELY, I WANT TO DO THINGS that are 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death, attracted 1,000 easy. By “easy things,” I mean projects people, even with minimal preparation and recruitment time. Green for that move organically because they so All acknowledges that everyone breathes, eats and drinks, but that a effectively tap into some essential human green economy can easily leave out the poorest and the brownest un- experience and aspiration that people less we actually shape it—a profoundly simple concept. come running. Having put more than Finally, the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and 20 years into racial justice work, I under- Action (TIGRA), founded by ARC board member Francis Calpotura, has stand that change can be slow, and I’ve built Million Dollar Clubs across the country. These Clubs consist of accepted that winning doesn’t always, or immigrants who use the money-transfer system to sustain their families even ever, mean that a fight has ended. back home. They aim to reform that system so that a portion of their During much of that time, I was slogging, remittances will be channeled into new funding for community-develop- trying to get people to focus on institu- ment projects both here and in their native countries. Their boycott of tional racism long enough to support the Western Union, from whom they demand lower fees and community changes that would end it. If I wanted a reinvestment, has attracted customers and shareholders alike. TIGRA movement, I thought I would have to build it one person at a time, one understands that love of family ties together transnational communities. issue at a time, one fight at a time. The money-transfer agencies understand that too, and the battle is on It was all meant to take a very, very long time. for who will get to keep and define the use of that wealth. Now I’m overwhelmed and excited about the things that seem to These efforts don’t reveal a way to work less—all the people move faster than anyone can explain. Three examples from ARC’s part- involved put in crazy hours and worry about many things. But they ners are revealing to me the beauty of simplicity. These pieces of work encompass a certain energy—a lack of slogging, an agility—that shows have enormous scope, and they encompass lots of complicated analy- how compelling they are, not just to us, but to most people. We’ve ses and strategies, but each is based on something that ties people been seeing that energy elsewhere too—in the massive immigration together in the most fundamental way. They occupy the intersection of marches of two years ago, in the unprecedented numbers of people race, culture and the economy. engaged in this election campaign, and in the opportunities the First, there’s the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC- campaign gives us to put forth a racial analysis. As we head into an United). Saru Jayaraman and Fekkak Mamdouh, who founded ROC-NY economic nosedive that makes it harder to push for racial justice and after 9/11, are taking their idea national. Restaurants are perfect inclusion, speed is of the essence. focal points for social change. Virtually everybody relates to them. About five years ago, ARC board member Omowale Satterwhite told As public spaces, they create a community’s culture in which racial me, “You never know how close you are to victory.” He was talking about and gendered hierarchies currently prevail but don’t have to. They are having been in South Africa just before the fall of apartheid, which no the fastest growing sector of the service economy, the one that most one at the time knew was so near. That’s the moment we’re in. We need quickly bounces back after disasters like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. to be ready to move. The simpler we think, the faster we’ll be. ROC-United gets more calls from restaurant workers nationwide than they can handle, but they are surely trying to keep up. Then there’s Green for All, with whom we worked on the green economies issue of ColorLines. Van Jones, Majora Carter and their colleagues have identified the fastest-growing part of the industrial RINKU SEN economy. Their conference, the Dream Reborn, commemorating the PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR rAce AnD PubLic policy in tHe 21st century THE APPLIED RESEARCH CENTER (ARC) has released two report cards that evaluate California and Illinois on their 2007 support for legislation that would bridge racial divides and improve equity in health, educa- tion, income and other areas. One of ARC’s allies, the Organizing Apprenticeship Project (OAP), has released the Minnesota Legislative Report Card. All three report cards were designed to set a racial justice standard for legislation. With our nation’s changing demographics, it is essential that state leaders implement racially conscious public policies. ARC’s California, Minnesota and Illinois Legislative Report Cards reveal where and how racial equity policies were undermined throughout the 2007 legislative process and underscore the growing need for state lawmakers to build legislation that puts an end to structural racism. CALIFORNIA In January 2008, ARC released Facing Race: California Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity 2007. [Continued on page 3] APPLIED RESEarCH CENTER 900 Alice Street, Suite 400, Oakland, CA 94607 PH: 510-653-3415 FAX: 510-986-1062 www.arc.org Arc Helps expanD rAcial Justice wOrk in nOrtHeAst stAtes THIS PAST YEar, ARC undertook a successful partnership with Northeast • Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG) is working with other Action to boost racial justice organizing in several New England states. organizations to build support for racial equity and cultural inclu- ARC provided racial justice training in a year-long series of regional sion in statewide universal healthcare proposals. meetings convened by Northeast Action, which involved 40 leaders • Northeast Action held a regional conference in Massachusetts with from six states. The training sessions were supplemented by ongoing a strong racial justice theme, involving 200 activists and signifi- phone calls with several statewide organizations. cant attendance by people of color. ARC Executive Director Rinku Each state, as well as the regional organization, set up a team to Sen was a presenter for a provocative evening plenary and partici- facilitate addressing racial equity and included this issue in their cam- pated in a workshop on immigration issues. Northeast Action has paigns and communities. The learning and action process led to the made racial justice a priority in its new strategic plan. following new activities: The participating organizations have learned to make racial justice • Citizen Action of New York (CANY) focused their annual leader- an explicit and proactive part of their organizing campaigns, with an ship assembly on racial justice and invited ARC staff to lead a full emphasis on developing more people of color as leaders. At the end of day of training with 100 leaders. Afterwards, CANY’s state board the year, organizers and leaders involved in the process were enthusias- adopted a new policy requiring chapters and committees to use tic about their progress in institutionalizing new practices. a racial justice framing tool for assessing all issues, including “We understood what we needed to do, but didn’t know how to do educational equity, health access and clean elections. CANY has it,” said Ivette Luna, deputy director of OSA. also incorporated some of ARC’s curricula and has trained a dozen “Now we have the language we can use and the tools we can apply organizers to lead the training sessions. to get the work of racial justice done,” added Lisa Reynolds, chairper- • Maine People’s Alliance (MPA) hired a new organizer explicitly son of Health Care for All in Connecticut. assigned to racial justice work, expanded outreach efforts to ARC plans to continue its partnership with Northeast Action and communities of color and assisted a local American Indian tribe several statewide organizations across New England that are eager to in a successful campaign to remove derogatory language from translate their commitment to racial justice into new strategies to make public monuments. changes in the legislative and electoral arenas. • Ocean State Action (OSA) in Rhode Island participated in state- If you are interested in a strategic consultation, please contact wide coalition efforts to successfully defeat more than 20 anti- Terry Keleher at 312-376-8236 or [email protected]. immigrant legislative proposals. ARC tO Convene Racial Justice cOnference FROM NOVEMBER 13–15, as many as 1,000 leading and emerging uPcoming events activists, scholars and journalists across the U.S. and beyond will gather for the 2008 Facing Race Conference at the Oakland, California Marriott JULY City Center to share strategies and solutions for advancing racial justice. 10-11 “Facing Race has become the ‘go-to’ place for racial justice activists to connect, learn from each other, strategize together and celebrate RJLI Training victories,” said conference coordinator Gina Acebo, “and this year’s Oakland, CA conference will be our biggest yet.” Aarti Shahani, co-founder and co- director of Families for Freedom, a multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing deportation, said “I wanted a space to go to, where NOVEMBER we could figure out how to build our political analysis in our movement.” 13-15 Facing Race 2008 will kick off with the keynote presentation by nov- Facing Race Conference elist, poet and screenwriter, Sherman Alexie.

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